Why?  Because resisting an idea is human nature 101.  Even for some of those who like to be out in front.  And I surmise it’s more of an issue in America, where it seems we are always wondering, regardless of what it is — How can I turn this great idea into cash?  Oh yeah, that ROI thing.  Maybe social media will finally help place “building a community” and “establishing a brand” above ROI once and for all. (where they should be). Whether we are talking about Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, your blog – it’s all the same.  Embrace them now and they will love you back.

So, how can you benefit from Social Media content?

• Build relationships
• Provide thought leadership
• Respond to customers
• Improve search engine rankings
• Use in conjunction with media exposure
• Platform for Promotions and Contests
• Ultimately, improve sales

But let’s be fair, it isn’t just the ROI issue which stops companies from jumping in with social media.  In fact, there are a number of other issues that various surveys cite including lack of knowledge, lack of executive resistance, etc.

The bottom line: Social Media is about influence, connection and brand.  When considering this, it’s important to ask a few key questions: Who is your audience?  Who will you connect with?  What’s your strategy?  These are all things that you want to think about and plan for.  If you haven’t done it yet, get yourself a calendar and start mapping out what you want to do.

The great thing about social media is that we are able to do things that we’ve never done before, more efficiently, at a higher level. Through these platforms we can facilitate new relationships, new conversations, positive influence and close customer interaction…All at a faster rate than ever before.

If you’re old enough to remember what life was like before the Internet, all this stuff used to happen at conferences, the workplace or through a social service group or association.  My, how times have changed. And for the better!  Social media is taking us to exciting places.

How is social media content working for you?

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Content can live forever on the Internet.

This is a critical piece of information, especially for those who are new to the web and haven’t practiced restraint when they have decided to spout their opinion, weighed in on a hot debate or maybe surfed the web and contributed something when they were a little less than coherent. Or perhaps wrote and published some articles that had wrong information in them. It happens. But, do you really want this stuff following you around for the next 50 years?  I think we all agree that when you publish something on your blog, on a PR site, on Twitter or wherever, its critical to make sure its reviewed a few times… by a couple different people… before you launch it to the world.

But what I really want to stress are the benefits of this “forever available” online content:

1. Continues to make you an authority long after the expected life cycle of the piece
2. No ongoing cost to it “being out there”… see if a print magazine would give you 2 years of free ad space.
3. Can continue to pay search engine ranking dividends for your blog, corporate site and/or social media presence… love that!
4. Can continue to provide new sources of business from new readers… that’s low cost lead gen.
5. If it’s good… Helps people learn, grow and prosper… forever.

Eric Friedman at Marketing.FM recently made some interesting points on this topic.
He talked about how the Social Web has helped content “live forever”. He is absolutely right.. Of course, this isn’t true for everything you publish, but when I get a call from a new account who referenced an article I wrote five years ago… that’s pretty amazing. The article is still converting!

He also mentioned how important it is to have a system for monitoring what’s being said out there about you, which I totally agree with. Take a look at http://socialtoo.com/
This is a cool little site that can help.

Bottom line is this: If you haven’t already done so, put together an editorial calendar for all the content you will publish for the next six months. Make the content interesting, informative and about your audience. And remember when you are writing it, that what you say may follow you forever. Make it good!

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Before the Internet came along, one of the most time consuming and expensive tasks of any marketer was trying to get in front of the right target market.  Who exactly is interested in buying our products? Who could use our services? Companies the world over did everything they could, but it was still a very inefficient process. Print ad campaigns were run, but would only mean something to 10% of those that saw it. And you didn’t know who they were or how to follow up with them. Direct mail campaigns were sent, but only 2% or less of the people that got these ever contacted the company. Companies had very little opportunity to have prospects come to them, or employ “pull” marketing. The predominant method was “push” advertising and because the company, not the prospect, was in control, it was an ineffective method.

Then came the Internet. And along with it, pay per click advertising. All of a sudden, everything was turned on its head. True “Pull” marketing could be used – in mass. You could get in front of those who wanted you to get in front of them, essentially. People began knocking on your door. And they did in big numbers. Today, PPC is a multi-billion industry and has helped to make Google a very big and successful company. Yahoo and others have enjoyed the riches as well. Now, it’s your turn. How can you make PPC work for you? Why can you double the size of your business with it? How can a Google Adwords expert help you get there?

Most people know that advertising on search engines like Google and Yahoo is one of the best ways to increase the traffic to your website. With pay per click advertising, you only pay when someone clicks on your ads, which makes it cost-effective and very efficient for new lead generation. Of course, it’s not as easy as it may sound – you need to control your expenses and actively manage it every day. But, once its fine tuned, it can serve your company very well. Through geo-targeting, demographics, and targeted keywords, you can reach your target audience very quickly with PPC.

Pay-Per-Click advertising programs, like Google Adwords, can help grow your business in many ways. If you have never tried it, you should log on to Google Adwords and test the waters.

Consider the following key points:

• Do your research: You’ll want to search for your keyword phrases and see which competitors come up. Check the PPC listings at the top and on the right side. Who is there? Do you know these companies? Depending on your industry, you should see some of them there. Read the ads. What do they say? Are they good? Take a look at the landing pages. Do they motivate you to contact them? Without a good landing page, the whole effort may be wasted. Google Adwords experts can assist you.
• When you start your PPC campaign, your ads will show up immediately, which gives you instant site traffic, regardless of whether your website is indexed by the search engines yet.  You could be in front of millions of searchers very quickly.  Be sure to monitor the clicks to your website – you don’t want to spend too much too quick, unless you have the budget.
• Test, test, test! Use your best keywords to improve your organic search results. Run lots of ads at the same time, run the same ads for different keywords, test pricing, offers…do whatever you think will get you the best results quickly. When you find out which keywords and ads work best, keep using them.   You are on your way to doubling your business!
• Large or small doesn’t matter. With PPC, it’s a level playing field for all businesses. If you are a small mom and pop business, your PPC ad could be right above or below a big brand name ad. That’s the way it works with PPC. If you are small, you can benefit. This type of thing never happened before the Internet.

Keep in mind; PPC is not a silver bullet. It’s not right for all companies or all industries. But, it is for many. And millions of businesses are making big money using it. If you need help with your pay per click management, try using a pay per click management firm.

Now that you understand how pay per click advertising can help grow your business and bring people to your site, it’s time to get started!

Good luck!

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The final straw for me is when I read this post in Copyblogger today:

The author said, “What About SEO Copywriting? Forget about it. Seriously. If you focus on writing clear, concise and compelling copy, you will naturally write keyword-dense copy. You’ll naturally write for the search engines.”

Say what?  No, that’s not right.  Forget about it?  Hardly. People don’t just naturally write for the search engines. A lot of people don’t know anything about the search engines. Many don’t know about keyword research. And then there are Meta tags. Do we just forget about them too?  Or do they just magically get written…naturally?  Not even.

And, don’t get me wrong, Copyblogger is usually spot on. Brian Clark is clearly a leader in our industry. But I just don’t agree with publishing this type of information. For one, it can mislead the newbies out there.

Writing optimized web copy is part art, part science, but all skill. And it needs to be practiced. There are many things one needs to pay attention to when writing for the search engines. Although I know you’ve heard it before, it’s not just about dropping your keyword phrases in 3 times on every page. If you want to dive into it, feel free to take a look at some of the other posts on the Content Rich blog, or pick up a copy of my book.

Note: There are also a group of “elitist” online marketers out there who love to be perceived as cool or cutting edge, when they really aren’t. Do yourself a favor: Don’t listen to them. I say forget about cool and let’s just help people with their websites.

Other online marketers are deserving of expert status and do have incredible insight and ideas. (See Seth Godin, Rand Fishkin and others like them.) These guys can show you the way!

And when it comes to SEO content, let’s make sure we aren’t misinforming people.

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Well look, here is the deal. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: There are a ton of businesses out there that are very challenged when it comes to their website and using it as a tool in their marketing arsenal. I have made it my mission to not simply help those companies that come to me and know they need help, but to reach out, be a little evangelical and find those companies that are way behind the times and don’t know how much they can benefit. Why?  One, you can make a big impact, very quickly and two, it makes my job interesting. Plus, I like to help these types of sites… it gives me a warm fuzzy knowing I have helped those who really need it.

Who are we talking about? Those that put up a website in 1999 and haven’t done anything since. Those people who have a site that looks like an online “junkyard”… different fonts, flashing banners, and bad color schemes. And finally, those who have never bothered to put a site up at all. Oh, and I guess we could include non-profits that don’t have the time, people and money to make changes. I’ve helped a few of them for free.

If this sounds like you..then this post is for you! and for those “in the know” who won’t get anything from this post, perhaps it will motivate you to help a few companies that fall into this category as well.

So, if you consider yourself a rookie when it comes to online content and you don’t have a clue about what to do first, here are some ideas for you to consider:

1. Ask 10 of your good business friends to take a look at your site and provide you with feedback
2. Search Google for the products or services you sell and see what you find
3. Check out wordtracker.com and keyworddiscovery.com and learn what they are all about
4. Sign up for Google Analytics and give it a spin
5. Google “SEO website designer” or “seo consultant” and have 10 firms review your site for free
6. Check out marketingpilgrim.com, seomoz blog and toprankblog.com - Lots of great information on these sites!
7. Not sure what Pay per click advertising is?  Take a look at https://adwords.google.com
8. Never done an online press release?  Go to http://www.prweb.com
9. Confused about the basics of SEO copywriting?  Take a look at some of the other posts on this blog… lots of good stuff!
10. Email me with any questions you may have: jon@contentrichbook.com

This should be enough to get you started. There is a lot here in each one of these resources, but if you put in the time, you’ll be blown away at the potential they hold for your site.

Any feedback from others on good sites to check out for the rookie?

Good luck!

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Why?  Because you are putting something transformational out into the universe. You are shaking up the status quo and providing a vehicle for new thought. I know, I know, I’m expressing this concept like I was on “The Secret” or something—but the fact of the matter is, it’s true… With one caveat:

It’s got to be good.

It needs to come from an inspired place. And if you can blaze a new trail with something interesting, groundbreaking or even revolutionary in that content, then all the better.

So new content. What are we talking about?  Well, content can come in many forms including:

• Blog postings
• Tweets
• Building out your Facebook page
• Adding pages to your website (through new products + services, new resources pages, articles, online newsroom, etc)
• White Papers
• Studies
• Reports
• User generated content (reviews, etc)
• e-Books
• Traditional Books
• And many more…

If you are a savvy online marketer, you are engaging in all of these content ideas. If you are like most, it’s tough to find the time. But, trust me, it’s worth it. The reason I wrote this blog post is simple: I have personally seen how new content, namely a book…can create a big spike in new business. It’s been pretty remarkable.

The next step for any content creator is to “get it out there.” Online is a given. But, how about taking it on the road?  Go to events, conferences, seminars, service group meetings, Meetup meetings, anything and tell people about this new content and how it can help them. In no time at all, you’ll have more business than you know what to do with.

Recession? … nahhh

Anyone out there have good feedback from your own experience?

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In these challenging economic  times, where small businesses are failing right and left, it’s more important than ever to know what your competitors are doing and how they are using their web content to, in effect, take business away from you.

So what should you do if you are a small business and want to “spy” on competitors?

• Review their websites – Do this on a regular basis, and don’t just jump around from page to page glossing over the copy. Really take a look. Read the content word for word, see what they are using to rope people in. Use an alias email and sign up for their free stuff, and dig through all of this in detail. White papers, webinar recordings, newsletter, whatever. If they have this type of content, you’ll find out pretty quickly what they are up to. If they don’t, well then at least go through their site map, take a look at the pages and see what you can learn. If they have a blog, get on their feed. (see point # 4 below)
• Check out their keyword phrases and Meta tags – related to the bullet above. Go to each page of their site, right click on the page, select “view source code” and look for the words “META” near the top of the page. You want to look for the Title tag and Description tag. This is where you’ll see their important keyword phrases, notice if the Meta tags are different for every page on their site (good for them) or the same (probably good for you). Next, Google these phrases as see if they come up. And see if you come up to!
• Check their links - Go to Yahoo and search “Links competitordomainname.com.” Using this method, you can check out linkbait data, see what important sites they are connected to and where you might be able to get a link from as well.
• If they have them, follow your competitors’ feeds – You can get all kinds of information this way, plus it comes to you automatically. This makes it very easy.  And if they have a Twitter page, check their feed there too.  Lots of great stuff can be found in “The big T”, the most popular social media tool out there right now.
• Use Compete to review their traffic trends - This great tool will graph your competitors traffic over time vs. yours.  If they are rocking and rolling, see how they’re driving traffic to their site. What can you do in response?

And my final point…notice I say “if” they have a blog and “if” they have a Twitter account. I think those of us in the SEO/SEM/Designer and Marketing worlds forget that there are a lot of companies out there that aren’t that savvy when it comes to the web. That’s one big reason why they need us. In fact, I blogged about this topic a while back. We all need to do more to communicate with these types of businesses and help them get up to speed. These are the ones that we see going out of business and who can benefit the most from the tactics mentioned in this post.

So I bounce this one to you - What other free and easy competitive research tactics/strategies would you suggest?

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Say what?  Yes, that’s right, a full 1154% more than Facebook! And with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on The View, on the nightly news and everywhere else, all we have heard about it how fast Facebook is growing. Well step aside “other” social media sites…”tweeting” is the coolest, hippest new verb in the world.  Quick and easy content is taking over the airwaves folks.

Since it seems I’m hearing something cool or new or interesting about Twitter every few minutes nowadays, I thought I would share a few with you:

• SalesForce announced the addition of Twitter support through its Service Cloud offering . This basically means that within Salesforce, you’ll be able to search for any relevant “tweets” that could affect your company – complaints, reviews, ramblings, anything, and then respond yourself if you like. (with the benefit of using one App to do it).
• A new and very cool white paper, Social Media Marketing Industry Report, was put together by Michael Stelzner at White Paper Source. The goal of the paper was to understand how marketers are using social media to grow their businesses. Check it out!·

• If you didn’t see this one, I recommend checking out Lee Odden’s (Top Rank) great post from a few weeks ago, 12 Ways to Find Brands and Companies on Twitter. I found this information very valuable and I’m sure you will too.

Quick benefits from Twitter that we have experienced in the past few months:

• You get news and information on “happenings” faster
• You can build a quick network of supporters, allies and friends
• Twitter mimics and supports the way people actually think… in random, quick thoughts… a brilliant idea can appear out of nowhere
• You can monitor what’s being said about you (see the bullet point above)

So that’s it for today… a few little Twitter morsels to digest. Let me know what you are hearing and seeing as it relates to this social media juggernaut!

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Ask yourself this: What do I do when someone contacts me? This is an important question and also, where many companies fall down. They work their butts off making everything look great on the front end, making their site look cool, creating the ultimate lead machine. But when the leads start coming in, they fumble the ball, fall on their face and die a slow death. Not good.

So what should you do after the content is posted?  Here are some helpful reminders:

• Surprise them by calling immediately after the lead comes in…that’s right call them. Nowadays, most of us are just inclined to shoot off that auto-responder email and wait. Don’t do it.
• Think you’ll just sit down, write a proposal and send it off?..don’t do it. Give them something for free…something that has value, up front without them doing anything or asking for it. For selected prospects, we provide a free keyword report.
• Try this a couple times during the project: Whenever the client asks you to do something, drop everything you are doing and get it done right then, at that very moment. Make sure they know. They will be shocked, surprised and yes, on the way to being a client for life.
• After all is said and done, write them a personal letter or card thanking them for the opportunity to work for them. Yes, write it, with a pen…remember those things?

So, yeah, 80% of life is showing up. And it is 80% of the equation. But that 20%…that really important 20%… is what separates the stars from the super-stars.

So how will you follow up? What will you say? How will you build the relationship? How will you create a new good friend from what once was a total and absolute stranger?

What you do after your content is on the web isn’t just important…it makes ALL the difference.

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Yes, some would say that’s an obvious conclusion…Twitter and blogging go hand in hand. But here is what I am saying: If used effectively, Twitter is the BEST promoter, distributer, and awareness builder for your blog. Better than Stumble Upon, better than sending out to your list and promoting your RSS feed, better than anything really. It’s lightening fast and getting better every day. Plus, Twitter is still growing…by leaps and bounds.

And I think it’s important to bring up because we really should study this phenomenon to see what happens over the next few months. It’s very interesting and could have potentially far-reaching impacts.

In fact, just last week, Hitwise published some Twitter research on their blog and concluded the following: Twitter sent nearly 1 in 5 downstream visits to Social Networks and 1 in 5 to Entertainment websites in February. The top Social Networks visited after Twitter were, Facebook and MySpace, the Twitter Search page and YouTube. This was interesting, no doubt. But here was the really interesting part for me:

9% of the people went to a blog right after they visited Twitter – more than Search, email services and other Social Networks.

That’s fascinating. Twitter is no doubt being used as a social network – but it also is probably the best way of distributing content…and yes, getting people to “find out more” by going to your blog. Sort of like a blog advertising channel.

Makes me wish I would have mentioned some things about Twitter content when Lee Odden interviewed me for his great blog post on Content Strategies a few weeks back. Maybe we’ll have to do a Part II to Lee’s post? Not a bad idea.

In a short time, I gained over 350 followers on Twitter and I’m not quite sure how I got them. But they came. And many have checked out my blog posts. And its effects have been dramatic. I don’t know about you, but I just love how quick and efficient and easy Twitter is. It’s the “super connection machine” that is creating a new online communication paradigm, right before our eyes.

And after all, perhaps the most simple reason is because Twitter is like blogging anyways, just on a very small scale. It mimics it so naturally, it compliments.  I think they’re “for each other like
“A wop ba-ba lu-mop and wop bam boom!”

What are your thoughts?

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